Skip the Pub Crawl and Read One of These Books on St. Patrick's Day

"Had Elizabeth Bowen been a man, she would be recognized as one of the finest novelists of the 20th century," wrote famed Irish novelist John Banville. Bowen's fierce prowess in the English language and unrivaled understanding of Ireland's mysterious beauty is most obvious in The Last September, a book about life in 1920s County Cork. It grapples with life in Ireland on the brink of freedom from British rule.